Online Master of Science in Systems Engineering

The MSSE program is an industry-based program that will engineer better solutions for a better world. In this context, the program’s
mission is to:

• Provide students with a high-quality education, virtual class options, and the opportunity to succeed at school while working
• Educate and mentor students to promote systems thinking and prosperity while protecting the planet
• Create systems that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental quality
• Incorporate industry needs and global megatrends of digital transformation, sustainability, and complexity growth
• Incorporate technology trends such as advances in materials and manufacturing, advanced modeling and simulation, the data sciences, and digital transformation
• Reflect the trends that shape stakeholder values, such as simple, timely, safe, secure, and stable systems

Industry Relevant

Other Systems Engineering programs focus on engineering disciplines such as: design, industrial, manufacturing, software, or management.  Weber’s view of Systems Engineering is in the global context, recognizing the systems viewpoint and landscape, while incorporating INCOSE standards and teachings.  At Weber, the required coursework includes the materials and knowledge necessary to prepare students for the Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) exam offered by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

Industry relevance translates to additional career advancement opportunities.

WSU focuses on the life cycle management through the application of digital engineering.  Topics include:

• Management of complex multi-disciplinary projects
  • Requirements, product lifecycle, process, task, and web document management
• A single authoritative computer model for system design
• Parametric digital connectivity of system requirements, data, and design content
• Physics-based, optimization, and operational simulations
• Integration of internal and external stakeholders

Experienced Faculty

Weber’s faculty bring years of industry experience to the academic setting, providing students with a real-world understanding of Systems Engineering, processes, and management of operations.  Weber’s faculty industry experience includes:

• Aerospace and Defense
• Manufacturing
• Mechanical
• Business Intelligence and the Data Sciences
• Biomedical
• Chemical
• Advanced Design

With post graduate certifications:

• Professional Engineer
• Lean/Six Sigma
• Leadership/Project management
   

Team Collaborations

Collaboration amongst students and faculty provide a high impact learning experience to explore and analyze challenges and solutions.  These high impact learning experiences prepare the graduates for gainful employment as a systems engineer.  Weber State University’s curriculum and experienced faculty gives each student an opportunity to collaboratively and cooperatively learn.

In 2021, Affordable Colleges Online (ACO) has ranked Weber State University as 19th nationally, on its list of low-cost colleges with graduates who earn high starting salaries.  This translates to a great education that lands a well-paying career.  WSU’s MSSE includes technical and management processes applied to design, implementation, and retirement of systems.

These processes involve modeling and analyzing systems using: 

• Digital Engineering
• Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
• Systems optimization and simulation
• Eliciting, developing, and managing requirements
• Risk management and mitigation techniques
• Verification/validation/evaluation approaches
• Design sustainment and multigenerational technology

Other Systems Engineering programs focus on engineering disciplines such as: design, industrial, software, management, physics or electrical.  Weber’s view of Systems Engineering is in the global context, recognizing the systems viewpoints and landscapes, while incorporating INCOSE standards and teachings.  At Weber, the required coursework includes the materials and knowledge necessary to prepare students for the Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) exam offered by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

Per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Systems Engineering job growth is expected to grow by at least 8% over the next 10 years.
Systems Engineering jobs include:

• Director of engineering or quality
• Engineering manager
• Verification & Integration Systems Engineer
• Model Based Systems Engineer
• Defense Technology Engineer
• Requirements Engineer
• Systems Architect Engineer

In industries such as:

• Manufacturing
• Aerospace
• Healthcare
• Information Technology
• Defense technology
• Pharmaceutical
• Medical devices

Weber’s focus on INCOSE standards, teachings, and the Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) exam, provides students with additional career advancement opportunities.
 

Systems thinking is an approach that involves many modeling and analysis techniques that allow the system to view issues holistically and have a board perspective that includes seeing overall structure, patterns, and cycles in the system.
Systems thinking is also a diagnostic tool.  It can be used for examining problems holistically and accurately before acting.  It allows engineers to ask better questions before formulating solutions.

Systems thinking can used for challenges that have the following characteristics:

• Addressing complex, global challenges
• There is a need for a new solution or the current system is deficient
• The challenge not a one-time event
• These challenges cannot be solved by any one party, nor understood from only one perspective

Systems are continually evolving and exhibit emergent behavior.  Some examples include:

• A lean manufacturing cell – Infrastructure, machine tools, automation robots, human interactions, material flow, and work-in-process
• A hospital – Infrastructure, diagnostic and treatment equipment, electronic health records software, mediation dispensing software, doctors, nurses, and medical billing agents
• Municipal water supply – Infrastructure for storage, treatment, and distribution of water for homes, industry, irrigation, and firefighting needs, EPA requirements, and sustainability management
• Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system – Hardware / software to detect and monitor possible threats, satellite sensors, ground and sea-based tracking radar, the ICBM, and underground missile silo, and all staff associated with the System of Systems (SoS)
• Automated prescription filling devices – Hardware / software to identify, count/measure, fill, and label bottle, ability to handle tablets and capsules of all shapes and sizes, ability to fill with no cross contamination, safety measures, provide a proper environment for storage and handling of medicines, and tracking of controlled substances
   

Systems Engineering is shaped by the global environment, human and societal needs, policy and business challenges, and evolving technologies – which give rise to complex engineering challenges.  These complex challenges impose new demands on the types of systems needed and are unsolvable by any one area of engineering.

For example, how does the increasing stress on the sustainability of natural resources impose new demands on the types of systems needed?  A Systems Engineering solution may bring together manufacturing, financial, and materials science engineering along with operations management and economics.  
 

• Systems engineer managers are the primary interface between management, customers, suppliers and specialty engineers in the system’s life cycle.  Responsibilities of a systems engineer manager includes:
• Managing system engineering teams to support new product development
• Striving for technical excellence in meeting the system’s needs, constraints, and performance
• Driving system platform adoption and usage
• Managing, measuring, and assessing continuous improvement projects to increase system efficiency

• INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional Certification
• OMG Certifications
• OMG SysML Certification
• Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE) by IREB
• Project Management Professional (PMP) by PMI